Re: 1teraflops cell processor possible?

On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 21:36:52 GMT, Stefan Monnier
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>If you want to use "our civilization's vast economic surplus" to stop
>people from dying from things like cancer, AIDS, malaria, I think
>there's no need for faster computers or better molecular biology.
>At least for AIDS and malaria, it has to do with hygiene and education,
>which we know very well how to provide.  I.e. the problem is political.

There are plenty of diseases for which political solutions won't get
very far; but let's take the two you mentioned, which indeed could for
the most part be dealt with politically. Political problems tend to be
more intractable than technical ones. Would you really want to live in
a world that would be willing and able to enforce a ban on promiscuous
sex, even in countries that don't want such a ban? Can you think of a
way to get the environmentalists to not fight mass spraying of
insecticide in malaria-infested areas?

I'm inclined to think figuring out the molecular basis of these
diseases so we can develop better treatments is actually an easier
problem to solve.

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